Today was a 3 Zodiac cruise day! We started early in the morning with a cruise at Cuverville Island. Saw a handful of birds looking for food on the surface which was a good indication that whales may be nearby. And sure enough, we discovered a few humpback whales. Our guide then headed closer to shore and we saw some more Gentoo Penguins. At one point, a fur seal surprised both us and the Gentoos by jumping out of the water onto the rocks. Even though Fur Seals don’t eat penguins, they were clearly terrified and adorably scrambled across the rocks to get away. He didn’t stay on land long though as he realized they didn’t want to be friends and he dove back into the water. Rounding the corner, we saw another fur seal sunbathing on the rocks with another large colony of Gentoos.

Landed at Cuverville Island on the beach. We were instructed to be careful of the whale bones since they were likely about a hundred years old. Without anything to break down the bones, the only thing that really causes them to decompose is the expansion and condensing from the cold. I sat down to take a picture of a cool curved bone with a penguin almost in perfect placement on the other side of it but was quickly greeted by a friendly chick who came right up to me. He approached quickly and was very excited to chew on my backpack strap. I wound up even using the selfie camera on the iPhone to take a picture when he crawled under my arm. The Gentoos on this island had even found a little tunnel to hide and play in. Our guide Jean said they probably didn’t dig the tunnel but it was more likely carved out from a stream of water eroding the snow. Hiked up the hillside to a good vantage point and sat to talk with guide Kyle for a while. This site was also the first time I actually saw anything green… there was just a small ball of moss and dirt sitting in the snow. Loaded back into the Zodiac to head back to the ship for lunch.

After lunch, we sailed to Neko Harbor. This bay was named for the former whaling factory ship, Neko, which frequented the area. This was a landing-only site with more Gentoo Penguins. As soon as we stepped off the Zodiac, there were several penguin nesting sites on shore and once we got into the snow, tons of penguin highways. These are lines carved into the snow and ice from the penguins repeatedly going up and then sliding down the same path. We had to stop for a minute to allow a few penguins to cross our path. At the top of the hill, we took turns posing with the Antarctica voyage flag from the front of the ship while we waited for the enormous glacier in the backdrop to cav. The clouds were pretty cool today so I took a time-lapse of them moving. We sat down with the penguins on the hill and they also came right up to our guide Burtie…one even crawled right up into his lap! Another one came to check out Jeremy too.

After an early dinner, we headed out for a sunset cruise at Skontorp Cove / Paradise Harbor. Dave was our photo guide for this cruise which was awesome. He’s a bit of an aggressive (and fun) Zodiac driver and a nature photographer so we set out to get some good sunset shots. We cruised past the Argentine Brown Station but kept right on going to find a good photogenic spot. Saw a couple crabeater seals but kept on going. There were two islands full of penguins so he parked the Zodiac in between them so we could get some shots with the orange sky in the background and the penguins in front of it. The sky was absolutely beautiful but the photos just don’t do it justice.